The Matrix Revolutions

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The Matrix Revolutions
Promotional film poster
Directed by	The Wachowski brothers
Produced by	Joel Silver, The Wachowski brothers
Written by	The Wachowski brothers
Starring	Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Distributed by	Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures
Release date(s)	November 5, 2003
Running time	129 min.
Language	English
Budget	$150,000,000 (estimated)
Preceded by	The Matrix Reloaded
IMDb profile

The Matrix Revolutions is the third and last film in The Matrix trilogy. The film, a combination of philosophy and action like its predecessors, sought to conclude the questions raised in the previous film, The Matrix Reloaded. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. It was released simultaneously in sixty countries on November 5, 2003.

This was the first time a Hollywood film opened in India at the same time as the rest of the world ^[1]. It was also the first live-action film to be released simultaneously in regular and IMAX theaters. The Wachowski brothers were present in Tokyo at the opening of the movie, as were stars Keanu Reeves and Jada Pinkett Smith.

[edit] Production

The movie was filmed concurrently with its predecessor, Reloaded, and live-action sequences for the videogame Enter the Matrix. This took place primarily at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia.

[edit] Soundtrack

In contrast to the movie's predecessors, very few "source" tracks are used in the movie. Aside from Don Davis' score, again collaborating with Juno Reactor, only one external track (by Pale 3) is used.

Although Davis rarely focuses on strong melodies, familiar leitmotifs from earlier in the series reappear. For example, Neo and Trinity's love theme—which briefly surfaces in the two preceding movies—is finally fully expanded into Trinity Definitely; the theme from the Zion docks in Reloaded returns as Men in Metal, and the energetic drumming from the Reloaded teahouse fight between Neo and Seraph opens Tetsujin, as Seraph, Trinity and Morpheus fight off Club Hel's three doormen.

The climactic battle theme, named Neodämmerung (in reference to Wagner's Götterdämmerung), features a choir singing extracts (shlokas) from the Upanishads. Some viewers consider the occurrence of the Sanskrit prayer in the closing titles of the movie an apt conclusion to the philosophical theme portrayed throughout the trilogy. The chorus can be roughly translated from Sanskrit as follows: "lead us from untruth to truth, lead us from darkness to light, lead us from death to immortality, peace peace peace". The extracts were brought to Davis by the Wachowski brothers when he informed them that it would be wasteful for such a large choir to be singing simple "ooh's" and "aah's" (according to the DVD commentary, Davis felt that the dramatic impact of the piece would be lost if the choir was to sing 'This is the one, see what he can do' in plain English). These extracts return in the denouement of the movie, and in Navras, the track which plays over the closing credits (which may be considered a loose remix of Neodämmerung).

[edit] Cast

• Keanu Reeves as Neo
• Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
• Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity
• Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith
• Mary Alice as The Oracle
• Helmut Bakaitis as The Architect
• Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian
• Collin Chou as Seraph
• Roy Jones Jr. as Captain Ballard
• Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock
• Matt McColm as Agent Thompson
• Harold Perrineau Jr. as Link
• Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe
• Gina Torres as Cas
• Cornel West as Councillor West
• Bernard White as Rama-Kandra
• Anthony Wong as Ghost
• Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamann
• Nathaniel Lees as Captain Mifune

Actress Gloria Foster, who played the Oracle in the first two films, died before the completion of her filming for the third and was replaced by actress Mary Alice. Her changed appearance is addressed in the movie's plot, and the directors state they had coincidentally explored such a change early in the script's development.

[edit] Plot

The film's events immediately follow those of The Matrix Reloaded and assume familiarity with the story of the last two films.

[edit] ACT 1: Escape From The Train Station

Neo finds himself trapped in an illicit gateway between the Machine mainframe and the Matrix. The gateway is controlled by the Merovingian.

Bane and Neo are both in an unconscious state. The former is said to be merely asleep, whereas Neo's neural patterns are identical to those of people who are jacked in to the Matrix. Morpheus, dispirited after the destruction of the Nebuchadnezzar and discovering the true nature of the Prophecy at the end of the last film, starts a search for Neo within the Matrix despite his not being jacked in. Neo is in fact trapped in a limbo: a subway station named "Mobil Avenue" that is a transition zone between the Matrix and the Source (the Machine mainframe). At this station, Neo meets a 'family' of programs, who tell him that Mobil Avenue is controlled by a program called The Trainman who, in turn, is an exile loyal only to The Merovingian.

Seraph contacts Morpheus on behalf of the Oracle, who now resides in a different "shell" (see Cast, above). The Oracle informs Morpheus and Trinity of Neo being trapped in Mobil Avenue. Seraph, Morpheus and Trinity pursue the Trainman to secure Neo's release, but he escapes. The trio enter Club Hel to confront the Merovingian for Neo's freedom. The Merovingian demands "the eyes of the Oracle" in exchange for Neo's release, and Trinity responds by provoking a Mexican standoff, forcing the Merovingian to release Neo at gun point.

Troubled by new visions of the Machine City, Neo decides to visit the Oracle before returning to the real world. She informs him that, as the One, he has a connection with the Source (the Machine mainframe). The Matrix, and the rest of the Machine world, are derived from the Source as well. Thus we learn that all of Neo's abilities - both in and out of the Matrix - exist because of this connection. This is how Neo was able to stop the machines giving pursuit after the Nebuchadnezzar was destroyed in The Matrix Reloaded, although the end result of his lack of preparation was temporary confinement in Mobil Avenue. She characterizes Agent Smith, also growing in power, as his exact "opposite", his "negative" and elaborates on the relationship between herself and the Architect (Tellingly, each of them ejects an exasperated "Please!" when Neo asks them about the other). She also tells Neo cryptically that "everything that has a beginning has an end", and warns that Smith's power threatens not only the Matrix but also the Source and eventually the Machine City. The Oracle states that the war is about to end "one way or another".

[edit] ACT 2: Final Choices

The Oracle makes her choice to be consumed by Smith. This new, seemingly all-powerful Smith will be the one to fight Neo at the end of The Matrix Revolutions.

After Neo takes leave of the Oracle, an army of Smiths arrive at her home. They successfully assimilate the unresisting Oracle. Having gained her powers of precognition, the new Smith cackles maniacally at whatever future he is seeing.

In the real world, meanwhile, the remaining crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and the Mjolnir (referred to by the characters as "the Hammer") encounter Niobe's ship, the Logos, and its crew. They successfully reactivate the deactivated ship and begin to interrogate the now awakened Bane, who claims he has no memory of the events of the earlier battle. After contemplating his visions, Neo announces that he needs a ship to travel to the Machine City, although he cannot explain why at the moment. Roland, the Mjolnir's captain, refuses him, but Niobe- who was told by the Oracle that she'd have to make a choice helping Neo or not- lets him take the Logos. Trinity decides to accompany Neo.

The two remaining crews plan to return to Zion and avoid the Sentinel army by piloting the Mjolnir through a series of service tunnels through which it is nearly impossible to navigate. Shortly after departing, the Mjolnir's crew discover that Bane has murdered a crewmember and has hidden aboard the Logos, but they are unable to return to warn Trinity and Neo. Before Neo and Trinity can depart, Bane ambushes Trinity and takes her hostage. Neo fights with Bane, who reveals himself as a manifestation of Agent Smith. During the struggle, Bane/Smith blinds Neo by cauterizing his eyes with electric wires. As Bane/Smith appears to have the upper hand he closes in on Neo - only to have his attack thwarted and reversed. Neo can see Smith, the program, in Bane as a fiery orange form in spite of his blindness. Neo then kills Bane/Smith and releases Trinity, who pilots them towards the Machine City (presumably 01 described in The Second Renaissance).

[edit] ACT 3: Submission & Sacrifice

Zion is overwhelmed by a Machine invasion that is a quarter million strong. Their only hope is the EMP onboard the homeward bound Mjolnir ship, which is under heavy attack from a vast platoon of sentinels.

In Zion, the defenders deploy infantry armed with rocket launchers and Armored Personnel Units in order to protect the dock from assault. The dock is invaded by a massive horde of Sentinels, as well as two giant drilling machines, igniting The Battle of Zion. APU's fail and the humans are pushed back into the temple. Captain Mifune fails to get the gate open, with his last breath he tells Kid to open the gate for the Hammer. Meanwhile, as the Hammer speeds toward Zion it is pursued by a large number of sentinels. Just as the remaining humans are about to be overwhelmed, the Hammer arrives at Zion and breaks through the gates, setting off an EMP and disabling all electronic equipment in the area. While this finishes off the Sentinels, it also disables the remainder of Zion's defenses. The humans are forced to fall back to the temple entrance and wait for the next swarm that will almost certainly kill them all.

Nearing the Machine City, Neo and Trinity are attacked by the city's defense system, hurling massive numbers of mobile bombs and Sentinels at the Logos. Neo uses his powers to destroy the incoming bombs, but the Sentinels are too numerous. To evade them, Trinity flies the ship above the permanent electrical storm/cloud cover, disabling the Sentinels but also the Logos' engines. After a brief glimpse of sunlight, the ship plunges into a spire of the Machine City. The impact of the collision fatally wounds Trinity, and she dies.

Neo emerges into the Machine City to strike a bargain with the machines, personified by the Deus Ex Machina. Neo warns the machines that Smith (who has by now assimilated almost all of The Matrix) is beyond the machines' control, and will soon assault the Source to which the Matrix is connected. He offers to help stop Smith in exchange for a ceasefire on Zion. The second wave of Sentinels attacking Zion instantly responds by standing down while the Machines provide a connection for Neo to jack into the Matrix and confront Smith. The city is now wholly populated by Smiths - the one with the Oracle's powers steps forth, asserting that he has already foreseen his own victory.

Smith delivers a triumphant death blow to his old adversary.

The city's population of Smiths stands by and watches while Neo and Smith square off. Fighting on the streets, through buildings and into the sky, they finally brawl in a flooded crater. Neo ultimately relents as Smith sees the details of his victory unfolding. Although initially confused and scared, Smith assimilates Neo, whose final words are a play on Smith's refrain from their fights in The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded: "It was inevitable." This is apparently successful, the new Smith nodding confidently. In the real world, Neo's body suddenly spasms and stiffens as we see some surge of force pass into him from his connections. The new Smith's body begins to crack, bright light shining through. This soon passes through to the other Smiths, which begin to explode in a similar fashion to how Smith did in the finale of The Matrix.

With the Smiths destroyed, all the programs and humans that have been possessed by Smith return to normal, including the Oracle. The Sentinels that were about to attack the humans withdraw from Zion; the human resistance cheers in victory, while Link and Zee share a moment of intimate happiness together. Neo, having sacrificed himself to save both the Machines and humans, is unplugged from the Matrix, and his body is respectfully carried away by the Machines.

[edit] Epilogue

The Matrix is restored, Zion is saved, and the Machines have been rescued from the viral Smith program. Neo sacrifices his life for the world.

The Architect appears and tells the Oracle that she "played a very dangerous game" by attempting to "change" the way in which the Matrix functioned, to which the Oracle responds, saying that she understood the risk and knew it was worth taking. She asks the Architect what will become of any humans who want to be unplugged from the Matrix, and the Architect replies that "they will be freed". The closing shot of the film depicts a new dawn on the world of the Matrix, created by Sati. For the first time in the series, plant life is shown in the Matrix, and the ever-present green tint is absent.

According to the game The Matrix Online Neo's body, along with Trinity's, was never returned from machine city, a plot point of the game that has yet to be resolved.

[edit] Reception

The budget of the movie was an estimated $110USD million, grossing over $139USD million in the United States and approximately $412USD million worldwide,^[2] roughly only half of The Matrix Reloaded box-office total.

DVD cover for the film

The movie was met with generally mixed to negative reviews from critics. Revolutions scored only 36% on movie review aggregation site RottenTomatoes. ^[3] Metacritic's average critic score was 48/100 with a user score of 5.3/10 based on 265 votes. ^[4]

The Matrix Revolutions grossed $48.5 million in its first five days of release in the US. It had a weaker opening than its predecessor that some^{[citation needed]} have attributed to a more subdued marketing campaign in comparison to the summer blockbuster event, The Matrix Reloaded.

Praise of the movie generally focused on the strength of the movie's action sequences and special effects ^[5][6]. Some considered it "a better movie" than The Matrix Reloaded ^[7], which some said "raises the bar a notch or two" since the original movie, The Matrix ^[8].

Common criticisms of the film were that it was anticlimactic ^{[9] [10]} and self-indulgent ^[11]. Nevertheless, critics regard the movie as less philosophically obtuse than its predecessor ^{[12] [13]}, Reloaded. Many critics had difficulty finding closure pertaining to events from Reloaded, and were generally dissatisfied^[14][15]. Its earnings dropped over 70% in its second week^{[citation needed]}.

The films were received in high praise of its conceptual complexity by scholars and philosophers, as seen in the video The Roots of the Matrix. Philosopher Ken Wilber stated that The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions had expanded on the "simple dualism" of the first film - The Matrix - thus transforming the trilogy into a piece of "complex literature" with the second two installments of the trilogy.

In Moscow, the film's premiere was accompanied by a demonstration organized by the youth wing of the Russian Communist Party who welcomed the film as an allegory for Communism. [1]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Simulated reality
• Joanne Morra and Marquard Smith The Matrix: Morpheus in Exile

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Matrix Revolutions

• Official site for the series
• The Matrix Revolutions at the Internet Movie Database
• The Many Meanings of The Matrix, Larry Wachowski in a dialogue with Ken Wilber.
• The Matrix Revolutions Explained - a comparative-literature-style exegesis of selected parts of Matrix Revolutions.
• Lyrics to Neodammerung, including translation
• The Matrix Revolution October 27, 2000 draft script by Andy & Larry Wachowski
• Essay: Understanding the Matrix Trilogy from a Man-Machine Interface Perspective
• The Matrix Wiki